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Videoconferencing with family members enriches the lives of nursing home residents

Nursing home residents who used videoconferencing to keep in touch with family members felt it enriched their lives, according to a study in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Thirty-four residents from ten nursing homes took part in the study. The 18 women and 16 men had an average age of 75.

All of them said the experience enriched their lives, just under two-thirds said it was the second-best option to family visiting and a third said it gave them a true picture of family life.

Asthma control? We've got an app for that

An online self-management tool for people with asthma has been shown to significantly improve their ability to reduce their symptoms. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research tested the system in 200 adults with asthma, finding significant effects in those whose asthma was either partly controlled or uncontrolled at the beginning of the trial.

Genome-wide study identifies factors that may affect vitamin D levels

An international research consortium has identified four common gene variants that are associated with blood levels of vitamin D and with an increased risk of vitamin D deficiency. The report from the SUNLIGHT consortium – involving investigators from six countries – will appear in The Lancet and is receiving early online release.

Heart attacks declined 24 percent in Kaiser Permanente northern California since 2000

Oakland, Calif. (June 9, 2010) – Heart attacks declined by 24 percent within a large, ethnically diverse, community-based population since 2000, and the relative incidence of serious heart attacks that do permanent damage declined by 62 percent, according to a Kaiser Permanente Division of Research study in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Improving recovery from spinal cord injury

Once damaged, nerves in the spinal cord normally cannot grow back and the only drug approved for treating these injuries does not enable nerve regrowth. Publishing online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine show that treating injured rat spinal cords with an enzyme, sialidase, improves nerve regrowth, motor recovery and nervous system function.

So far, fish appear to be healthy after fly ash spill

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., June 9, 2010 -- Fish exposed to fly ash at the site of the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill are faring better than some expected, researchers have learned.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory in collaboration with TVA has found that while small amounts of some contaminants from the December 2008 fly ash spill have been taken up by fish in the Clinch and Emory rivers, to-date, the fish collected downstream from the spill appear healthy relative to fish from unimpacted sites.

Liposome-hydrogel hybrids: No toil, no trouble for stronger bubbles

No toil, no trouble for stronger bubbles

Solution to beading-saliva mystery has practical purposes

Solution to beading-saliva mystery has practical purposes

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have discovered precisely why strands of some fluids containing long molecules called polymers form beads when stretched, findings that could be used to improve industrial processes and for administering drugs in "personalized medicine."

Data acquisition and coordination key to human microbiome project

Data acquisition and coordination key to human microbiome project

Polyphenols in red wine and green tea halt prostate cancer growth

In what could lead to a major advance in the treatment of prostate cancer, scientists now know exactly why polyphenols in red wine and green tea inhibit cancer growth. This new discovery, published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), explains how antioxidants in red wine and green tea produce a combined effect to disrupt an important cell signaling pathway necessary for prostate cancer growth.

Late-stage ovarian cancer shows promise in two-drug phase I trial

INDIANAPOLIS -- The combination of decitabine and carboplatin appears to improve the outcome of women who have late-stage ovarian cancer. In an upcoming issue of the journal Cancer (online today), Indiana University researchers report four of 10 patients who participated in a phase I clinical trial had no disease progression after six months of treatment. One patient experienced complete resolution of tumor tissue for a period of time.

NIST WTC recommendations are basis for new set of revised codes

Faster and more efficient emergency evacuations from buildings—especially tall structures—and better communications between first responders during an emergency are among the safety improvements expected from 17 major and far-reaching building and fire code changes approved recently by the International Code Council (ICC) based on recommendations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The recommendations were based on NIST's investigation of the collapses of New York City's World Trade Center (WTC) towers and WTC 7 on Sept. 11, 2001.

A tale of two atolls

Coral reefs – kaleidoscopes of pink anemones and silver sharks – are the planet's most colorful ecosystems and among its most endangered, say marine scientists.

As global warming raises ocean temperatures, many corals blanch and die, a phenomenon called "coral bleaching." And pumping large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere could make the ocean more acidic, further decimating corals and the fish that depend on them for food and shelter.

Autism Speaks, world experts announce discovery of new autism genes in Autism Genome Project Phase II

Autism Speaks, world experts announce discovery of new autism genes in Autism Genome Project Phase II

World's largest DNA scan reveals rare variants that disrupt gene activity in autistic children

The world's largest DNA scan for familial autism has uncovered new genetic changes in autistic children that are often not present in their parents. Identified in less than 1 percent of the population, these rare variants occur nearly 20 percent more in autistic children.

Published in the June 9 online edition of Nature, the findings emphasize the need for larger study samples to illuminate the diverse genetic causes of the brain disorder.